The Scotch Wop was robbed of deserved championship challenges from 1913 till 1921, even though he bested the great Benny Leonard and Freddie Welch. Also beat Rocky Kansas, Charley White, George Chaney and Lew Tender (or so I remember). Got a draw for the featherweight title, too. Is he severely under-rated or was he just lucky? Where does he rank in terms of feathers and lightweights?
Yes Pete. In a saner less polically correct age Giusseppe Carrora,under his Scotch manager Scotty Monteith, took the fighting name of Johnny Dundee. Dundee of course is a Scottish name, hence the nickname THE SCOTCH WOP...Johnny Dundee along with Jack britton are two of the most neglected great fighters ever...Dundee fought 335 fights against anyone and everyone in the FW and LW division. He was kod only ONCE in his best days,fighting almost weekly, and people who saw Dundee and later on Willie Pep rated the minuature Harry Greb dynamo, Johnny Dundee over Pep in the featherweight division. Just think folks 335 fights, without a mouthpiece and smaller gloves...
Sounds like a pretty hardcore guy. Didn't know Dundee was a Scottish name. I guess because Angelo Dundee is of Italian descent. Was Angelo's father Scottish? Interesting people rated him over Pep. He deserves an appreciation thread, but does that statement so anything about nostalgia, or is it quite possible he was better than Pep (Seems highly unlikely). Does this suggest that the eye-test is not always the best test...
No Angelo also was of Italian descent. His brother Chris Dundee was a famous manager and promoter. Chris managed the great Ken Overlin... Pete, when I posted that, in the 1940s when I saw Pep at his best, I couldn't imagine any featherweight better than Pep...I am giving the opinions of Nat Fleischer [who raved about young Pep],and other writers of the time who because of Johnny Dundee's voluminous punching and RUGGEDNESS,rated Dundee over Pep. When I was growing up,the majority of oldtime boxing writers had McGovern, Attell, Jem Driscoll , and Johnny Dundee over Pep, when Pep was fighting. I also believe that Henry Armstrong would have beaten Pep as a featherweight...Cheers...
Chris and Angelo changed their names to Dundee too ! Original name was Mirena. I think they actually named themselves after fellow Italian "Johnny Dundee". :good Dundee is the fourth largest city in Scotland. From wikipedia : The name "Dundee" is made up of two parts: the common Celtic place-name element dun, meaning fort; and a second part that may derive from a Celtic element, cognate with the Gaelic dè, meaning 'fire'.
Johnny Dundee is a bona fide all-time great. Not sure where he places in the all-time rankings but his record speaks for itself.
Gene Tunney at Stillman's: "Let's open the windows and clear this place out with some fresh air!" Johnny Dundee: "Fresh air? Why that stuff is likely to kill us!" Dundee was a wise man, whose judgment was confirmed nearly a century later when that "fresh air" Tunney spoke of killed nine time NYC Women's Marathon winner Grete Waitz with cancer at just age 57. (Dundee, much wiser and healthier than Waitz, lived to be 71 despite having had 333 bouts.)
Could apparently fight off the ropes like a mother ****er (whom many consider the best rope fighters of all time).
This content is protected Senya's write ups of some of his fights - [url]http://senya13.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Johnny%20Dundee[/url] In 1934 he was considering a comeback - [url]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=66NQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=3CEEAAAAIBAJ&dq=johnny%20dundee&pg=1327%2C2547860[/url] Johnny Recalls his fighting days - [url]http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cb9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=riMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7313%2C5393058[/url] Rob Snell's Bio (pdf) - [url]http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://boxingbiographies.com/bio/index2.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26do_pdf%3D1%26id%3D337&sa=U&ei=srxpUfz2GMThPN7FgIgM&ved=0CDIQFjAH&usg=AFQjCNFa4eGAbeKusrD5KCMHgXFnNQQm4g[/url]